


Pocket of Pearls and Home

by CrazyIndigoChild, tanksquid



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Dismemberment, Eventual Smut, M/M, Mermaid Sex, Mermaid au! Except they are sharks, Pining, Romance, clueless Shiro, hunger, mermaid, slowish burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-05-27 15:55:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15028061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyIndigoChild/pseuds/CrazyIndigoChild, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanksquid/pseuds/tanksquid
Summary: Orphaned at a young age and alone for most of his life, Keith found it hard to make friends, but when aquarium-raised Shiro gets tangled in an open-water fishing net it’s up to Keith to save his life. Their solitary lives are forced together as they work to survive on the reef Keith has always called home.When their once secluded reef becomes overrun with tourists, Keith and Shiro are forced into open waters in the search for Shiro’s missing shoal among mersharks just like them. Along the way they meet new friends and see new places that neither of them would have ever dreamed of, and together realize that found family can be all you need.





	1. No Glass Boxes Here

 

 

 

There was blood in the water, metallic and sweet in the way that made hungry stomachs lurch with need. Instinct yanked Keith out of his shipwreck home, taking him out to the open water with the rush of a hunt. From the taste on the current, whatever was bleeding wasn't too far. Good. Close enough to swoop in and steal a few bites before something bigger and stronger came around.  
  
It had been days-- or weeks, since he'd last had a proper meal. Long enough that the prospect of eating both hurt and drove him harder.  Whatever it was tasted fantastic.  
  
His meal was snagged in the fishing ropes just off the reef. Fortune smiled on the starved; nothing had shown up to claim his meal, and the ropes would keep most fish from bothering him too much. But they were lost on merpeople. Which meant free reign for Keith to feast.  
  
Drifting closer he found not a thick-bodied fish, but another mer, tangled up in the ropes. Surprised but not unguarded he diverted to instead circle the nets, eyeing his prey anew. "You're bleeding."  
  
The other mer, a strong and healthy looking guy-- definitely too well fed to desperately go for fish in the ropes-- startled and twisted to watch him circle just beyond the trap. It was a convincing ruse, he'll admit, the blood a risky but alluring touch. But Keith wasn't hungry enough to fall for such an obvious trap.  
  
When their eyes met there was real pain there. Real surprise, like he'd expected to be left to bleed in peace. Ha. So he _could_ be stupid enough to get caught, maybe he'd gotten snagged in the dark? Even the possibility was enough to lure Keith closer; time to decide, and quickly, whether the mer was easy prey before something else decided for him.  
  
The only thing stalling him was, despite being hooked to the gills, the other didn't seem too rushed to get loose. Not that he should have any trouble: his teeth were razor sharp and the ropes weak with age.

"I'm alright. They'll come get me soon. You should leave though; aquariums are a bit smaller than open water.”  
  
Aquariums? Was he sick? "Are you an idiot? You want the fishermen to get you?" Keith snarked.  
  
"Biologists," he corrected, innocently hopeful and patient as a clam. "They probably realized I missed the migration and came back for me."  
  
Delusioned maybe, but Keith decided he was rational enough, healthy enough to eat. Slipping in close he reached out and tugged at one of the lodged hooks, darting out of reach when his meal yelped and jerked away. Away from him. Huh. Really not a trap.

A cloud of blood swelled with the digging of another hook in the captured mer’s arm. At least he knew to be still on the ropes lest he cause more damage or, more importantly, more trouble for Keith to work him loose.  
  
Circling back he scowled and drifted even closer. "You're bleeding, and if fishermen don't kill you something else will."  
  
"You mean like you?"  
  
"Or worse. Can't you smell it? This place reeks like death. Rotten, dead fish."  
  
That seemed to be enough to rattle the complacency and had the other mer tracking shadows beyond the ropes. The skin beneath Keith's touch leaped at the contact; a pair of steely grey eyes watching him carefully. Keith bared his teeth in warning; "I'm going to take these hooks out. They're meant to catch and kill you, dumbass. If you bite me I'll leave you to die."

"They won't kill me," the idiot scoffed, turning his head away as if it somehow proved he wouldn't try anything stupid-- like he clearly was. Of course it didn't last when Keith yanked a hook from his dark underbelly and jerked out of the way of a reflexive lunge at his arm.

The dumbass came back to his senses a half-second later with a bashful,"Sorry."

Once the other mer was freed Keith lead him out the maze of hooks to safety but the other mer didn’t let them swim far, "Come, I'll show you."

Keith had not expected a lot of things when he turned his back on another shark-mer, but the last he expected was to be gently lead to the surface by the wrist. He was also put off by his readiness to humour a complete stranger. A stupid stranger. "Humans are... strange, but rather harmless. They're just curious. Mer are new to them."

Keith pushed the hair out of his eyes as he broke the surface in time to see a handsome face fall dark; confusion was an easy emotion to name. "That's not..."

Not a white shiny boat? Not full of happy humans blasting music and gaping at little clownfish from the bottom glass? No. These humans were coarse and their boats had nets of overfished stock hanging off the sides.

Keith didn't care to think of what would happen if they pulled him into the boat. From the corner of his eye he watched the other mer curl in on himself, floating in a cloud of pink that clung in a film to his shoulders.

"Can we go please?" The stranger whispered, confused and hurt as he stared at the unfamiliar boat.

Keith was the first to slip under the surface, down deep where the coarse barking laughter of humans was drowned by the steady poundin of the tide.

Grabbing his bleeding refugee by the wrist he tugged him out of fishing territory, out of open water and back towards the reef. While Keith himself wasn’t the biggest threat in the ocean the trail of blood they left behind then was damning them to the will of bigger and stronger things.

Man, was this guy a slow swimmer! If he had any doubts about the whole aquarium story (which he did. A lot.) then he was definitely a believer now: no one who swam that slow ever ate, and judging the stranger’s appearance he was pretty well fed before this.

“Down here,” he whispered and tugged him along a bit harder to a tall patch of kelp. “I can’t take you any closer to the reef if you’re bleeding. We wouldn’t want a great white sniffing you out. Well… you wouldn’t at least.” _He_ would have gotten the hell out of there in a heartbeat.

Kelp wasn’t the best for bandaging wounds but it certainly made do in a pinch, covering and sealing off the holes and scrapes in both skin and scales alike. His only concern now was anything that might be intrigued by a couple mer bobbing about in the algae. “Keep an eye out while I wrap these.”

“What am I looking out for?” he asked curiously, peeking around the forest of kelp.

“Bigger sharks. Great whites, tiger sharks, hammerheads?”

“Oh. We didn’t have those in the aquarium.”

“What a shame,” Keith sighed voice dripping with sarcasm, the length of kelp in his hands snapping in two against the punctured white and black of his companion’s tail. “Eyes up.”

His companion did as he was told. Whether he knew what to look for was the real question: he was looking around too quickly to be taking in much more than the local flora and anything that would have been right at their tails. “Do you know when I can eat?”

Keith started at that. When he could… well wasn’t that life’s great mystery! Keith wanted to know when he could eat too. Actually he’d originally been hoping his lucky friend here was small or hurt enough to eat.  “When’s the last time you ate?”

“When I was released… A couple days ago I think.”

Wow. This guy was gonna _hate_ the ocean if he’s upset over going hungry a couple days. “We’ll see if there’s anything around to eat.”

No promises on whether they’d actually find anything.

The larger mer nodded at that, thankfully either taking the hint or being too oblivious to read between the fronds. He glanced around lackadaisically, keeping an eye out for nothing. “You knew a lot about those fishermen, have you lived here long?”

“My shoal used to live out around here until we got separated. So now I live and eat off the reef.” And now that the injured mer was all patched up and not a meal, he could help Keith hunt bigger game. What he’d give for dolphin right about now. “We’re all done here. Let’s go find something to eat.”

As they drifted out of the tall kelp, Keith lead them up to the edge of the reef to circle the outer edge. Best to be out here and see trouble coming than be caught in the middle by something smarter.

None of this seemed to be an issue with his companion who swam around with big eyes and too much teeth. Every now and again he would look back and wander over to Keith’s side. It was like taking a pup into open water for the first time.

Near the drop off by the fishing lines they spotted a school of marlin. Humans liked marlin, those might have been what the traps were for. Regardless they wouldn’t be eating marlin; the risk of being impaled was too high with a novice like this guy. So instead he turned his gaze down, spotting a couple clusters of oysters dotting the sand by a couple overgrown rocks.

“What’s your name anyway?” Keith asked, passing his new friend a handful of oysters before hunting up the bigger ones under the rocks.

The mer seemed… confused, poking around the oyster for the seam and lightly scratching at the shell. Keith couldn’t help it if his stare was obnoxious, it’s just that holy hell...

“My name’s Shiro,” _Shiro_ said finally, taking a chance at sinking his teeth into it, and that’s when Keith had to intervene:

Snatching the oyster from Shiro’s mouth he smashed it as hard as he could off the closest rock, cracking it open and handing Shiro back the mess. It took a moment and some persistence for Shiro to take back his oyster and pick the broken pieces of shell apart to get at the meat. “Did you not know—”

“I wasn’t allowed to mess around with the oysters; never had to eat them, they gave me my own meals.”

“They’re just oysters,” he said with a snort, though he felt a little bad about smashing the oyster when he could have opened it.Humans. Keith seamlessly opened the oyster before using his claws to tear away the meat and plop it in his mouth; “My name’s Keith by the way.”

Oh, yuck, the thing was overripe, but Keith ate regardless. “So… you really haven’t lived in the ocean? Like ever?”

If this guy had been living in an aquarium his whole life Keith doubted his skills would even touch sub-par; aquariums meant walls and trapped prey. Out here fish learned to be quick and if you weren’t quicker you didn’t eat, and cornering wasn’t always an option.

Shiro grimaced through another oyster and shuddered, pushing the rest of his portions Keith’s way. It was an acquired taste it seemed. “I lived in a small group when I was a pup, but a few of us were beached in a nursery just off shore. I’ve been with the humans ever since I could remember.”

What confused Keith about it all was the idea that humans of all creatures would raise a pup and just… let him go. And for what? To study? Put on display for the world to see? Could Keith sign up too? “Sounds lonely,” Keith noted, snapping open another oyster and digging in.

From the sand Shiro rolled out a trough and settled, eyes turned up to the water. “It was. But I suppose no lonelier than being separated from your shoal.”

Instead of answering Keith flattened out on his belly and slipped his hands under a nearby rock to feel out for more oysters. It was hard enough to live it every day, at least now he could just focus on eating—“Ah!” Teeth, nettled and little, locked into the meat of his hand with a sickening snap; Keith pulled back to drag out a slimey, writhing eel, which he promptly pried out of his skin and smashed its head in with a rock. Even a free meal wasn’t worth it. “We should go, eels live in groups.”

Shiro was already out of the sand, eyes like sand dollars and checking his fins for any lingering friends and grimacing at the smashed-open eel that lay bleeding in the sand while Keith turned his attention out to open water.

“Hey! I had one of these in my tank!” Shiro exclaimed, drifting over his shoulder. “But yours is much bigger—you live here alone?” He swam up ahead and inspected the soggy torn sail of Keith’s ship with a couple cautious pokes. “Where do you sleep?”

“Down below.” Keith waited for Shiro to return to his side, slow from either his injuries or his captivity Keith couldn’t quite tell yet. Regardless it was a bit frustrating to force himself to slow down for someone else’s benefit. Something he’d long grown out of.

Through the hole in the bow Keith lead Shiro down through a maze of waterlogged, swollen wood and murky shadows. Among the splintered wood and collapsed hallways lay one of the few intact chambers from the ship’s working days; “I sleep in this box.”

Shiro slipped beneath Keith to ‘walk’ himself around the box’s ground with his fingertips. “No glass,” he said appreciatively, eyeing a small wooden frame Keith had never realized the purpose of. The way Shiro looked at it—and even his sleeping box—had him giving the place a second glance. No glass. Four sturdy walls and privacy. Suppose it could have been worse.

And just like that Shiro was off again, drifting over to the far corner of the room. With his back to Keith and his guard lowered now was the first time Keith could actually get a decent look at him, though the important features he’d already sussed out: thick and healthy—small like a reef shark but definitely bigger than a tiger shark. What he was exactly Keith couldn’t tell on his own. Regardless he was well taken care of. “Look!” Weaving to some toppled furniture Shiro plucked up a rusty looking piece from the wreckage and held it for Keith to see. It looked like the other garbage lying around the ship. “It’s like in the movies with the lost treasure.”

“Movies?” Keith asked, squinting to try and get a good look at whatever it was he’d found from a safe distance. After a bit of that curiosity got the better of him and he picked the small round piece from Shiro’s palm, scratching away at the sediment to get a small glint of gold. It was nice, but useless; if Shiro liked it he could keep it.

Shiro was a slow swimmer but he made a habit of moving impulsively in a way that always caught him off guard. This time he caught Keith by the wrist, gentle as he was quick, and turned it over to inspect the eel bite. It was a furious red and burned like a jellyfish sting but it definitely wasn’t what it could have been. Judging by the fact Shiro looked like he was about to lose his scales, they didn’t have eels at the aquarium. “What… what do we do?” he worried as he reached over to snap a piece of kelp from his tail to press to try and wrap around the wound.  
  
“Don’t be an idiot!” Keith snapped reflexively, bunching the kelp in his fist to push it back to the hook wound under Shiro’s scale, “You need those to keep your wounds closed.”

He might have been a tad aggressive because Shiro was right away darting away to get out of Keith’s range. As if a mer Keith’s size and build could take on Shiro on a bad day. He mumbled a half-apology and proceeded to eye him cautiously; the false sense of security had fallen away and now they saw each other for who they really were: two lone mersharks taking a huge risk.

As expected Shiro started to grow antsy and fidgety, rubbing at the rust on the coin as he took stock of Keith, somehow not drawing the same conclusions about their odds on each other. Which wasn’t bad per se.

“There were a couple sharks like you in the aquarium. They let the human pups touch them. They seemed happy.” An odd thing to say, especially if he’s just now gathering that Keith isn’t exactly living under the best of circumstance.

Keith’s arms came to rest across his chest, “You mean the humans were happy or the sharks?”

“Well… I mean they both did. The pups liked the humans and would always swim up with the stingrays to be pet.”

Pet. Like something cherished and loved; Keith remembered his mom petting his back when he was young, sitting with him until he fell asleep on her lap. Did humans pet these pups the same way? The memory was sweet but it twisted in his gut like a years-old hunger. Sinking to the floor he sighed and wished he’d saved more of those oysters. At least his hand wasn’t bleeding, so he couldn’t tell what was making Shiro so anxious. “So what are you anyway?”

Keeping a notable distance, Shiro followed his lead and sunk to the floor, flinching with a disgusted grimace and running his hands over the swollen wood before deciding he couldn’t afford to care. Instead he focused on polishing his gold piece. “Just a bullhead. Nothing fancy or fast.”

“Not like any bullhead I’ve seen,” Keith mumbled, resting his head on the crook of his arm. Not looking up from his work Shiro shrugged and curled in a bit tighter; the water had started to grow cold this side of summer.

“It’s getting late. Shouldn’t we be getting back to the reef?”

“How long have you been in the ocean? The reef is dangerous at night, you’ll be chum before you know it.” With that in mind, Keith pushed up and over to the door of the box: their only defense against anything that might want to make a midnight snack of them.

“Well, I mean, you’re a black tip. Nothing up on the reef would think to mess with you,” Shiro mused, more to himself than at Keith.

If Shiro were any smarter he might have pieced together that the qualifier ‘reef shark’ put him light years away from any old blacktip shark; if Keith were any dumber he might’ve corrected him. But with a strange shark locked in his home for the night, Keith would gladly sacrifice Shiro’s peace of mind for his own safety.

That didn’t help his anxiety any. He still spent half the night with his back against the wall watching Shiro with one eye opened.  Keith couldn’t afford to let his guard down one more time; he was the only one left now.  
  
  



	2. Sandbar Lonliness

The ache in his hand woke Keith up. The pain wasn’t as bad as the day before but enough that even  a slight jostle in his sleep had him flinching awake. Bleary-eyed he tried to search for Shiro and mumbled his name, but the other mer wasn't to be found.

It wasn't unusual to wake up alone; Keith had woken up to an empty den for so long it should have been normal. So he decidedly ignored whatever disappointment or traces of concern over Shiro’s sudden disappearance he may or may not have had. Forcing himself up from the ship's floorboards Keith darted out of the box to circle ship a few times, his frown deepening when Shiro’s trail promptly went cold: while he figured Shiro had been older, there was no questioning he had no business being in the ocean on his own. Every shark had their instincts, sure, but how much would Shiro know to rely on them when he’d grown up in a glass tank, hand-fed by humans?  
  
Keith finally made for the reef, one eye out for Shiro and the other on the hunt for breakfast. That would be one perk of Shiro leaving: one less mouth to feed. Speaking of food, from the corner of his eye Keith saw the shimmer of a swarm of mullet. The school of fish was swimming in lazy circles around the coral, a few just a little slower than the others. His stomach lurched with the thought of fish, fingers warping the coral he was leering over as he focused entirely on those straggling fish.   
  
It took some effort to maneuver around a thousand glassy eyes without being spotted, but Keith did eventually catch an injured one that just could not keep up with the rest of the group when he’d sent them scattering. He didn't eat it right away for a part of him might feel guilty if he didn't at least try to share with Shiro _if_ he came back. From his perch between the coral Keith scared off any nearby fish with his growling stomach as he tried to eat his catch with his eyes. Maybe he could just...eat it, and find Shiro another one?  
  
Yes, that was the most reasonable option; between two mer, even one as pitiful as Shiro, they could at least catch _a_ fish. Logic won and Keith gutted the fish with his face alone, meat never tasted better than when he was inhaling it. Oysters were only so filling.

He was about to take another bite when a voice from behind startled him and he was fumbling for the fish he'd almost dropped: "You're lucky I'm out of shape!" 

Chasing after the lingering school of mullet was Shiro, just a tad too slow and uncoordinated in his attack to get anywhere close. He’d have an easier time chasing the tide with technique like that. Sad.

Eventually sense caught up and he backed down from the chase to accept his inevitable defeat: if Keith could hardly catch an injured one Shiro wasn’t going to die before he even got close. So he set his eyes out for slower-- “Oh, Keith! I thought you were still asleep.”

Keith swallowed the mouthful of fish as he started guiltily up at Shiro’s bright smile before he offered up the fish, talking around a cheek-full. "H-hey....I didn't know where you went this morning, so I was hunting."  
  
Shiro ignored the offer and instead held up a finger before he darted off below the reef again. Unsure of what that meant, Keith looked above them and saw nothing, worried for a brief moment that Shiro had seen something. Instead Keith was served an extra helping of guilt when Shiro returned with a handful of oysters and dumped them into his lap. How thoughtful. "I woke up early so I thought I’d try and hunt too! I uh...lost a couple but there's still some good ones for you to open!"   
  
Keith held up a shattered, oozing oyster with a raised brow. _Lost_ was a word. At least Shiro had the decency to look embarrassed as he took Keith’s catch and helped himself to a couple sloppy bites; "I’m learning that rocks might not be the _best_ way to open oysters."   
  
Keith chucked Shiro’s battered victims with a small laugh and held one of the unbroken ones up. "The easiest way is to use your claws to pry them open." He demonstrated by wedging the claw of his thumb between the shells to lever it open. "And then I usually open it the rest of the way with my teeth."   
  
Finally, it gave and Keith plucked out the fleshy meat to flick Shiro’s way, watching him deftly catch it in his mouth. He was too good at it for Keith not to suspect it was some kind of twisted trick.

"So good!" Shiro hummed with a full mouth, taking the chunk of meat from the next oyster Keith cracked open.  "Yesterday you were worried we wouldn’t find enough to eat... but there's lots of food here."   
  
The reef was brimming with life, notably the huge schools of fish that were always nearby. They were fast, but if you were clever enough it wasn't impossible to catch a fish or two. Still, with lot of available food brought predators and Keith wasn't on the top of this food chain. "I don't like staying up here for very long." Keith said, taking the last oyster or himself, "You'd make a better meal than these tiny fish anyways."   
  
He nodded to Shiro's torso - the other male looked healthy, obviously well fed at the aquarium. No scarring from what he could tell: Shiro had never seen danger in his life, and Keith couldn't help the bitter feeling hollowing in his stomach.   
  
That feeling quickly dissipated however when a chilling shadow passed overhead, making them both look up-- of course Shiro cocked his head to squint up at what Keith already knew to be a shark _._ A large tiger shark was circling them above, searching.   
  
"It's just hungry." Keith whispered, trying to punch through the paralyzing fear to unlock his muscles. "They don't like diving for prey."   
  
He pulled the fish corpse from Shiro's hand, the other mer had taken quickly to Keith’s fear and nervously shifted closer, and let it float up before grabbing Shiro's wrist.   
  
Hopefully that was enough to distract it, and Keith prayed that Shiro had some magical hidden speed in him that Keith had yet to see. He was shaking as Keith started to pull them back into the coral, their eyes on the tiger shark snapping at the carcass and still circling after the disappointing snack.   
  
It whirled around on them and suddenly Shiro ripped away from his grasp to scramble away from Keith with a screech. "Hide!"   
  
While Shiro did that Keith swam as fast as he could, hoping that the shark had followed him instead as he, at least, could outswim it.

He darted around a ledge to take shelter and get an idea on where the shark was headed since he could swim from what he could see. No shark… and no Shiro. He was alone.

 _The perfect time to swim back to the box._ His brain wasn’t wrong: it was how he’d survived hungry shark all these years on his own. But now he wasn’t alone...

"Shiro!" Keith yelled, swimming back the way he'd come as fast as he could. This was the first time he'd ever had someone stick with him, sleep in his den, not get scared away by his abrasive nature. He had to help Shiro, wherever he was. No matter how much of a death wish he had.

His heart was pounding in his chest as he darted around, ducking under coral and through kelp to just get a glance at where Shiro had gone. He started to call again but stopped when he heard his name first… from behind? Keith flipped around and swam the other way, maneuvering around the coral and freezing when he saw the shark.

Shiro was crammed under an overhang of coral, pressed into too small of a space for the shark to get him but he’d seen sharks defy logic before. Keith's stomach lurched as he hurriedly tried to decide whether to do something brave or stupid. He settled on stupid and grabbed the nearest chunk of coral he could find, the jagged edges were all he needed. With a deep breath for some of that bravery he let the weight of the coral settle in his hand. "Hey!"

His shoulder made a hard connection as he slammed into the shark’s side, shoving it against the coral. Sooner than he’d like the shark was already shaking off the hit and had-- surprising no-- turned its attention to Keith. It lunged and Keith was right there throwing his aching shoulder to the side to dart out the way but managing to get a good scrape at its underbelly as it hurtled past; “Shiro, get out of here!”

From his hiding spot Shiro scrambled out and away, going for the edge of the reef with a small "Where?!"   
  
Keith gripped the coral tighter in his hand, the shark stunned for a fleeting moment but Keith’s attention couldn’t afford the risk of looking away. He readied for another attack.

"Come on, Keith! The boat - we can make it!" Shiro screamed, holding out a hand for him with a wide look on his face; "Please, Keith!"   
  
It was only after a moment of considering whether he really wanted to fight this shark that Keith turned tail and bolted, grabbing onto Shiro’s wrist to yank him towards the edge of the reef.

Sharks were so hard to deal with since you couldn't speak to them-- mer at least could understand-- but Keith knew enough about them to know what a pissed and hungry shark looked like, and that they might not even be safe in their home..

He dropped Shiro's hand and ducked below the main deck, wanting to avoid his box and going for one of the others underneath. "This way!" He shouted, sliding in through a hole in the wood paneling and heading down the corridor and into another box with a door. "In here!"

The wood was water-logged and swollen, taking both of them to force the door to shut. Keith's breathing came in wheezing gasps: what was he thinking, trying to fight a shark for a stranger? Fear again took over and paralysis, though it kept him quiet, left him pressed against the door while the side of the ship rumbled and shook under a full-forced hit. It was Shiro who had enough wits to grab him and drag him into the darkest corner to curl them up tight.

Shadows moved where they couldn’t and the box shook as the ship was ransacked, dirt falling through the cracks onto them. Pressing his eyes shut he buried his face in the crook of Shiro’s neck and listened to his frantic whispering: "I'm gonna find Sven. I’m gonna find him and he’ll take us both back to the aquarium. He has to, he has to..."  
  
Keith shushed him softly before glancing up - the thumping noises right above them, no doubt searching for a pair of tasty mershark. The thumping, the crashing, the cracking and rumbling! It was too much and in a desperate need to escape he clambered at Shiro's arms; he needed to make sure Shiro knew how to get out too. "If it comes in here swim out the door and go left. That box is broken and you can get out through there."

"Once I hit the open water it'll get me," Shiro ground out, tightening his arms around Keith, jumping at a particularly hard thud above them and huddling closer to Keith. "I'm not as fast as you are, I can't outswim it."   
  
Keith couldn't bring himself to agree with Shiro and sat silently instead as they listened to the noises begin to die down. With them out of sight and easier prey out on the reef, the shark wasn't going to stick around looking for long.   
  
They were still like that for a while. Even after the ship fell silent. It was just the sounds of their breathing, though Shiro's was still quick and a little worrying. Keith sat up and forced the other off as he tried to shake the grimy feeling of the wooden floor.

"Shiro listen," Keith whispered, grabbing at the other's cheeks to focus him, "I'm gonna go check if everything is clear. I don't care how fast you are or aren't. It'll be too focused on me to go after you, okay?"  
  
The idea set Shiro into a panic, eyes blown wide and lips trembling... but slowly he nodded. "D-do I go back to the reef?"   
  
The reef was a mess of predators and scary things that Keith wanted them both to avoid, but Shiro would probably die on his own anyway. So he nodded; "Back to the reef."   
  
Keith pulled away and gave Shiro a nod as he opened the door, no sounds above them still. He made sure Shiro found his way, ready to swim out at the first sign of trouble. He pressed his nose to the wooden planks above them, trying to peer through the holes for any sights of grey and black.

Nothing. Keith pressed on further, going down the hallway to a wooden staircase to slowly drift back up to the deck. The ship was silent. Swimming along Keith started to check out along the sides before he stopped at his box, the door ajar.

His stomach was in knots as he pushed it open further, waiting for the shark to come bursting through again, but he saw nothing and breathed out a sigh of relief. The boat was safe.

"Shiro, come on up." He called softly, sinking to the floorboards again as he tried to relax. He wanted so badly to find sand and bury himself in it, but instead just had the slimy wood to shiver on.

Shiro rejoined him a few moments later after making sure the door was shut tight before he flopped down beside him with a small groan. "Can we never do that again? I think all my scales are turning grey. I'm gonna end up looking like you." It was a joke, clearly, but Shiro sounded strained and stressed-- his first real bit of danger. "When I was younger one of the nurse sharks latched onto me and I was sure that was how I was gonna die."   
  
Keith couldn't help but entertain the idea of a tiny Shiro upset and crying over something like a small nurse shark. Little Shiro was in for a huge shock. Shiro’s hand found his arm; "Mind if I spend the night here again?"

"I'm not stopping you.” It was only midday - judging from the amount of light outside-- but neither of them seemed ready to go back out. Maybe when the spring migration rolls around. Groaning he thumped his tail against the floor; “I wish I’d killed it. We could have eaten it.”

That seemed to break Shiro's tense mood-- a wide grin crept over his face and he started to chuckle that slowly morphed into a deep laugh that had his shoulders shaking. "I wish you had, too." Shiro agreed, shifting a little closer, "Maybe next time."   
  
"What's so funny?" Keith leaned up on his elbows, giving the other a confused frown, not sure what exactly what the laughter was for; he hoped Shiro wasn’t laughing at _him_ . His shoulder was still sore from tackling that damn thing into the coral, not to mention stabbing the fucker in the stomach! "I could've killed him! Probably."

"You're something else," Shiro said. Not much of an explanation, but Keith wasn't sure he wanted elaboration, "I'm actually surprised it kept after you! You really hit him hard. There's no doubt in my mind you could have killed it."  
  
The pleased smile was hidden and tucked back under his arm. It was one thing to think you could take on a shark, another to have someone else think so too.   
  
"I'll kill us something better tomorrow." Keith mumbled as he glanced back towards the door, "and this time don't sneak off in the morning. Wake me up." He really didn't want another repeat of this morning and the case of the missing Shiro. Though he may not be used to the company yet he still wasn’t quite ready to let it go. At least not screaming and thrashing into a shark’s mouth.

Luckily the other was quick to agree and Shiro shook his head; "No worries, I'll make sure to wake you up first so you can make sure the way is clear before I ever think about leaving the box again."   
  
That made Keith snicker slightly and Shiro continued, "...What do you say about going outside and laying on the sand? It's still daylight, the sand should be warm."   
  
Keith opened his mouth to say no, they shouldn't risk it… but maybe with the two of them they could watch each other's backs. Not that he really trusted Shiro to _properly_ watch his back, not just yet, but he really could use the sun. Keith pushed off from the wooden floor, giving a shrug, "Sounds nice, but we need to be careful. Avoid the reef."

At most, they'd just have to deal with small sharks, the larger ones stayed either close to the reef, or much further out. Shiro followed Keith out closely, their eyes double-peeled for trouble. At this point they could probably see a crab and haul tail back inside.  
  
The sand bar wasn't too far from the ship and closer to the surface than the reef. It was rare that Keith came here though despite the lack of larger sharks; it was hard to feel like relaxing when he was so used to danger.   
  
"I wish there was a kinder reef we could stay at," Shiro said once they got to the sand-- the larger mer diving for it's warm comfort the moment he could and giving a full body roll through it.   
  
"It would be different if we had a shoal-- we’d be safer." Keith pointed out, digging his way into the sand. He settled into a spot near Shiro, his eyes flicking back and forth around them to ensure they were alone in the warm sand. "Why didn't they put you back with a shoal?"

"I think they meant to, but I'm not exactly the fastest fish in the sea, if you catch my drift." Shiro snickered at his own joke and rolled onto his stomach to inspect the coin he'd grabbed on his way out of the box. "But they’ll come back with the migration and I can join them then. Whenever that'll be."

"Months." Keith said plainly, shivering again as he tried to warm up in the sunlight. He felt an ache in his chest, wishing he could stay up here forever, wanting the sand and sunlight to soak through into his bones. Plus, Shiro didn't make bad company, as poor as his hunting skills were.

"Although... they aren't gonna want to take care of a full-grown male who doesn't know how to hunt." Keith raised his brows, "Same with a mate. You’re gonna have to provide somehow."   
  
"Yeah," Shiro’s face disappeared into his elbow, "I suppose I wouldn't be much more than a burden. I mean you nearly died for me today, and what have you gained for it? It’s not like I can go hunt a thank-you fish or whatever."

Keith looked away, drawing a finger through the sand, "I could help you if you wanted."

Suspicion or interest--though Keith doubt Shiro had enough awareness to be suspicious of anything-- Shiro pushed up onto his elbows, clearly not offended by the offer. “Help how?”

"Come hunting with me. I can tell you what I'm doing, like hints. Tips for avoiding getting inked by squids, or avoiding the beak on marlins."  
  
"Alright," Shiro smile grew toothier the more he considered, "then we can get some good eats going...but, Keith, you have to promise not to put yourself at risk for me anymore. I wouldn’t survive a day out here on my own, and I think the guilt would get me first. I’m really not worth it at this point.”

Keith pushed himself further into the sand, not wanting to admit it had been stupid to fight a grown shark, but hey, he'd nearly won! "Don't feel bad about earlier, it was just hungry." He mumbled, but he did promise Shiro he’d be a little more self-preserving going forward. At least until he _was_ worth it.   
  
While he wasn’t sure Shiro could do smug either, his smile was pleased and certainly proud for making what might have been his first real choice. But before Keith could think on it Shiro changed the subject: "You'd like the sand in the aquarium, it's so soft and warm and clean. Feels so nice on your scales."   
  
Keith, however, was still silent as he played in the sand, thoughts elsewhere. Keith probably would have done the same for anyone. Seeing mer get eaten was terrifying; they screamed and fought and clawed. Though he had threatened Shiro when they first met with eating him he wouldn't have been able to do it. Sure if Shiro had already been dead, but not once he saw the other still alive and not trying to trick him. No, Keith had saved him, and definitely wasn't about to lose the only companion he'd had in years.

A hand on his arm startled Keith into looking up, finding the light grey of Shiro’s eyes a few shades darker and the look on Shiro’s face almost distressingly serious. "No one's ever risked their life for me like that before...thank you. Really."   
  
It was hard to accept the praise, and Keith found himself flushing hard and looking away, changing the subject again: "I don't want to live in your aquarium box." The change seemed to startle Shiro and there was a pause before Keith continued; "People stare at you all day, poking you."   
  
"Yeah, but they give you food in exchange for the pokes, and sometimes they'll scratch you just right." Shiro softened as he rubbed lightly at Keith's arm.   
  
Relaxing Keith settled back onto his chest against the sand and shrugged; "I like the sound of free food. No more hunting."   
  
"No more hunting." Shiro repeated.

He rubbed his cheek on his arm as he thought on the idea of it, though he probably would still want the space to swim and explore. Had Shiro gotten to experience the ocean at all?   
  
"How old were you when you got taken up there?" Keith cocked his head to the side as he glanced over Shiro's nearly scarless body.   
  
"I don't even know how old I am _now,"_ Shiro snorted, "but suppose I was old enough to know I came from the ocean. What I was." Well Shiro definitely looked older than Keith.

"How old were you when you got separated from your shoal?" Shiro asked.   
  
Keith was silent as he thought about it, lines in the sand for each year that had passed since, Fourteen Lines. "I was fourteen."

He smoothed a palm over the lines and sighed. "Our shoal was mid-migration when we got attacked by a great white."

Was this too much to tell Shiro? Might as well forewarn the guy in case he keeled over at the first sight of one or, worse, froze up and slowed them down. He scooted in until their arms pressed. "My mom and sister died. My dad brought me back here. We used to live on the reef, but he was attacked too."

He dug his thumb hard into the sand, trying to make a small hole before shrugging.  "I have yet to see another mer from my shoal, but I think I've been doing pretty okay so far without them."

Like countless times since Keith had nearly lost himself to the ghost of his family’s memories. All of their warmth, their life and the very essence of what they had been to Keith shrouded by the taste of their blood in the water and their choked screams. The ripping of their flesh was deafening and Keith would sooner choose to die than hear it again. He was walking a fine line but it was Shiro’s hands cupping his cheeks that brought him back from the edge. His eyes had lightened but they had lost their conviction, instead he was sad and searched his face with the beginnings of an apology on his lips.   
  
The feeling made his chest burst with warmth, but the sad look wasn't one Keith wanted at the moment. He shut his eyes and drew a short breath before reaching up and taking Shiro's wrist in his hands as he leaned so he was more level. “You know… until you find your shoal, we can always be our own.”   
  
The idea delighted Shiro, eyes alight as he sprung up grabbing at Keith’s much thinner hands. "Okay! What kind of things do you do in a shoal?"   
  
"They...." Keith's brows furrowed together, trying to think what it'd been like when he had his shoal, "they help find food for each other, and... they protect each other, make sure the nest is safe."

He glanced towards the edge of the sandbank where it dropped off into open water. The ship sat not too far below. "I don't know. I guess just help each other?"

"Make sure the nest is safe..." Shiro mumbled to himself, following Keith's gaze back to the boat. "Our nest. I can protect it."

Shiro sounded so confident Keith couldn't help but nod along. _Their nest_ . They were an odd pair, but they could do it, and Keith was hopeful in teaching Shiro to hunt. He might have been a bit dense but he was definitely trainable. "So, shoalmate, what first?"   
  
Above them Keith could see the faint hints of the sun setting: right now wasn’t the best time to start hunting. "How about we snag some oysters and head back to the box for the night?" Keith said, shaking off some of the sand from his tail.   
  
Not hard to please, Shir was content with the idea and unburied himself with a smile; "But tomorrow we'll go hunting, right?"   
  
"Right.” And for the first time in years he actually felt... _excited_ about the future. It was starting to seem like he had options, rather than living out of duty to his family.   
  
They slept that night curled up together, bellies a little fuller, and bodies a little warmer as they lay curled in the little box they would now learn to call home.


	3. Sunsets on the Ocean

Two mer on the hunt. Two mer on the prowl. Or, one mer hunting and the other trailing behind a bit to see what that shiny thing was real quick. It was a dead silverfish, sorry Shiro. "Let's catch us some fish!" 

Before Shiro, he'd only ever taught his sister how to dig up crabs with her tail so she wouldn't get her fingers pinched. This-- teaching a grown mer how to hunt-- was a totally different story. Even at nine his sister could open oysters. Keith was really in it for the long haul.

Suppose that's what you do for your shoalmate. 

"Are we going back to the reef then?" Shiro had caught up with him while he was creeping up the cliff face, keeping an eye out for trouble his friend might not yet know to look for; 

"It's safer but we have to be careful of sharks. Believe me it's no fun being pinned to the reef." Keith said.

"It’s no fun being crushed against sharp rocks and stinging urchins? I would never have thought."

Up ahead Keith spotted a small school of small fish, darting little slivers of flashing silver. But it wasn't the fish he was interested. For just  _ beyond _ the fish… "How do you feel about squid?"

"I don’t know," Shiro said, following Keith's gaze but it was searching and easily distracted by the disorienting flash of silver in the swirling school. "I was never allowed to hunt in the aquarium." Of course not.

"Well you're in luck, because squid aren't that fast." All they needed was half a brain between them and hands. Which they had.

Dropping down to the reef Shiro snaked and slipped under the shade of a blooming red coral, finally spotting the creature and tracking it. Hungry. "How do we catch it?" he asked.

Keith joined him, though he wasn't so dedicated as to hide out. The squid wouldn't have seen them from so far-- but he appreciated that Shiro was trying. Can never be too careful. "It's going to startle and ink no matter what we do, so you're going to throw something at it from the front and I'll come up behind and grab it."

"It's not that fast, why can't I just chase it down and grab it myself?"

Squid weren't fast, but neither was Shiro and his sudden bout of confidence. Instead he lead his shoalmate a bit closer to the school. "It has a real nasty beak on it, and it won't think twice about giving you the bite of your life."

Shiro slowed, grabbing onto a rock to hang back. "Beak?!"

But Keith was already circling the school, wide to get behind the squid without tipping it off. They weren't fast but they were damn smart and skittish. Already he could see Shiro getting too close, and the mer hadn't even had the courage to let go of the rock.

On Keith's signal, though, Shiro grabbed a shell and swam up to toss it where the squid had been half-buried in the sand. It startled and ink hit the water. It darted his way and Keith was quick to chase after it, grabbing a trailing tentacle and grappling it down to the sand where the damn thing wrapped around his arm with a bruising squeeze until Keith sunk his teeth into its body. It got him a face full of ink but if the alternative was starving then he'd take three more.

Above them Shiro circled nervously, peering through the thick back until Keith held up their prize in triumph. No oysters for them tonight.

With the giddiness of a pup Shiro circled down to inspect the thing still wound tight around his shoalmate's arm, poking and prodding at it before reaching out to tug at one of the tentacles suctioned onto Keith's arm. "What is it-- heh, he really likes you…"

It was a bit of a wrangle but they managed to pry it off, leaving Keith a couple well-earned welts and Shiro something to ponder and turn over in his grasp. Probably wondering how the hell he was going to eat the damn thing. When he returned it to Keith he finally got his just revenge and bit off the tentacle that had left dark red welts up the inside of his arm, moaning happily at the feel of rubbery squid between his hunger-aching teeth.

Keith was primed for another too big bite when he spotted Shiro still poking and prodding at the creature, looking terribly concerned. If he was just now deciding to be picky about his food Keith wouldn't think twice about eating the whole thing himself. "You can eat any part of it…" he reached out to flip the squid to show Shiro its underside. "Here's the beak-- actually you can't eat that. Oh and the ink pouch tastes terrible so don't eat that either."

Seeming to play it safe Shiro decided to follow Keith's lead and settled for a tentacle, biting off the end with a careful nibble. Had the humans put up with such fussiness? Suppose they did if Shiro was able to get so plump. He could see the very moment Shiro decided he didn't hate the taste; the tentacle was ripped off at the root and the other mer nearly inhaled it. "Should we take this back to the box, save some for later?"

"Best to eat it now. The faster we're fed and gone the safer." To summarize: no food was ever to go back to the nest. Period. Luckily that didn't seem to be an issue today, they were both slurping and chewing away at the squid like it was flounder. By the time the tentacles were gone they'd slowed to a pace that resembled more like eating and less like hysteria. Keith pointed Shiro to the right places to bite into and Shiro readily sunk his teeth in. Alas Shiro wasn't a fan, opting for a shallower bite and pushing the rest to Keith-- which he was not at all upset about.

It was something to remember in the future, though; it hadn't mattered either way to Keith so he didn't mind catering to Shiro's tastes when he could. "Do you know why we did it like that?"

Shiro pushed off to swim around in low, lazy circles. His grin, complemented with a full belly, was wry and good-humoured; "To keep the beak and inky parts away from you?" he tried.

"Sorry you got caught in the ink," Keith replied with a nod, taking a big bite of the head and savouring the brinier taste. "I like to catch them with my hands and bite right here where the organs are. Just between the eyes." Walking his hands over a sturdy coral shelf Shiro draped himself and nodded studiously, though whether anything really stuck Keith couldn't say with full confidence.

At least Shiro's confidence was doing well: he looked especially pleased about his big ocean catch. Even if it was an assist. And he got inked in the face-- which was still staining just under his eye… which had taken a keen interest in the parts of the reef that rose up and out of the water.

"Come on, I want to show you something." Shiro said and Keith didn't have to think very hard about what it was.

Though he rarely ventured to the surface Shiro seemed excited enough by it that Keith didn't mind humouring him. At least there weren't any predators above the surface aside from Shiro's precious humans.

The rocks were a lot bigger above the water than he'd thought. Together they circled around to find a low ledge to hoist up onto but there wasn't anything that didn't need a good jump. And surely, with a splash, that's exactly what Shiro did. Not without some struggle up but overall it was decent. "Jump, I'll catch you."

Right away it was pretty damn obvious Keith wasn't going to make it; he wasn't entirely sure if he trusted Shiro to catch him and hold his weight either. Hell they'd had a great day, he'd happily trade an empty belly for a scraped-up belly. Still he tried circling around for a better way up before diving down to get some speed coming up.

Cold, dry air and the edge of a rock bending him at the waist was Keith's first experience above the surface since he'd been a pup. Shiro, as promised, was right there grappling him and tugging him up the rest of the way onto the rock.

"There was a window near one of my tanks," Shiro began once Keith's gasping coughs began to settle: the transition from water to air was not kind on this sea dweller. "I watched the sunset all the time. It's really something to see it in person."

Keith's attention wasn't on the sunset. Rather, he was pretty intent on the best way to stretch out to get all the warm spots while keeping Shiro as a shield against the cool breeze. To his credit he did  _ eventually _ turn his gaze to the sky. "That's my favourite colour," he said as he pointed to the darkest shade of red on the horizon.

"My favourite part comes next," Shiro murmured, shoving his wet hair out of his eyes to scan the horizon. Over his shoulder Keith could see the faint lights from the city. Too far out to ruin the light sprinkling of starlight fading in through shades of rich purples and deep blues. "It won't be long now…"

While Keith's hair dried into a fluffy, curly mess Shiro let his mind wander off to distant memories Keith was not privy to. At least not yet. He had to look away, the twist of longing in his brow Keith knew too well: he could feel how the muscles in his face had grown and shaped around that very look.

It didn't matter that they weren't the same kind. They were here now and they needed each other: a shoal from the lonely, lost, and forgotten. They could be just what they needed to carry on.

Eventually Keith did drift off into a light doze, rolling over onto his side and curling up with a hand on Shiro's waist to make sure he stayed right where he left him. He drifted a little deeper and found himself dreaming. He didn't dream often-- found no need for it maybe-- but he dreamt of his parents and the sister he'd lost. He dreamed of what their shoal used to be and if that wasn't a testament to his guilt he couldn't think of anything better.

Then Shiro grabbed him back… and for a moment he wasn't tormented, just sad.

Sometime later when the moon was high Shiro nudged him awake to head back down into the water. Though he wished they could stay up here longer he wasn't about to dry them up for the sake of indulging in a food coma, as much as he wanted to. At least they weren't going to bed hungry tonight.

His body was achy and sore from laying out on the rock, his shoulder an angry throb in his side and his arm numb from sleeping on it funny. Scooting along he found the edge of the rock and stretched out the strain in his back before moving to drop down, Shiro at his side to help-- "Nice hair," he snickered, reaching up to scrub his hand through the other mer's hair with a cheeky grin.

Shiro looked... stunned, wide-eyed and maybe a bit sheepish in light of his teasing. It couldn't be that Shiro cared any bit about his hair-- he spent a good hour with it caked in sand before bothering to shake it out. And even now he made no move to fix it. Finally he shook off the spell and gave him a wry smile; "Speak for yourself."

Shiro leaned over the rock to peer into the water and seemed to reconsider, shuffling back from the edge a bit and making it very obvious that he wasn't going to be the first one in. Well if what he knew about aquariums was true then Shiro was probably not very used to jumping into dark waters. It was kind of a leap of faith and Keith definitely understood how kind of terrifying it was. Definitely not something you want to get into the habit of. "Come on, before you get crusty."    
  
Pushing off he crashed back into the water with a terrible breath to open up his gills again and the warm from the rock still clung to his skin despite the cold water, which was nice. Shiro came splashing in a moment later, choking on his air a moment before rubbing at the dried salt off his skin, tight and itchy. "Let's go before we get sniffed out."

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to our wonderful artists who took on this fic with the utmost excitement! We have absolutely loved working with you all. 
> 
> All of their art will be linked in the fic. 
> 
> Second huge thanks to Purgatori and Appynation for being our loyal beta readers and continuing to encourage us through the daunting task of writing a 50k fic.
> 
> Please feel free to talk to either author on tumblr at @Princess-Tentacles or @Crazy-indigo-child, and thanks for reading our fic :)


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